Super Achievements of Tiny Wonders

Today, I am not going to talk about the Seven Wonders of the World. I am not even talking about the Wonders of Nature. I am talking about child prodigies, namely, ‘gifted children.’ As it is, children are amazing tiny wonders as each one of them in their own unique way makes our world so incredibly wonderful. God bless these little souls, without whom life would be simply lifeless. But gifted children are even better versions of normal children so I would like to call them ‘wonders of wonders.’

Often the newspapers, news channels, and the Internet keep informing us as and when these ‘little wonders’ do something incredible for their age. Much as I would like to, compiling a complete list of such children is next to impossible as Nature has gifted us with these ‘gifted children’ in abundant numbers across nations, over the years, excelling in varied fields, like music, sports, science, math, gymnastics and so on. In fact, I believe many gifted children go unnoticed too, for various reasons.

The criteria for choosing to highlight some of them for this article then had to be ‘whoever wins my attention.’ How else could I select a handful only? I offer my apologies for being so subjective and personal.

Ophelia is a three-year-old with an IQ of 171 when the normal IQ of a grown-up person is around 100 only.

Brielle is a child wonder who knew periodic tables when she was 3, knew human anatomy when she turned 4 and presently, all of 7 years is into fund-raising through the necklaces she paints.

Laurent Simons is only nine years old and was slated to be the youngest graduate in Electrical Engineering. Instead, his parents pulled him out to take up a Ph.D. in the US.

Incidentally, Michael Kearney, 10 years, is the youngest graduate in the world, a pass out from the University of Alabama in 1984. He also became the world’s youngest postgraduate when he was 14.

This record was toppled by an Indian child prodigy, Tathagat Avtar Tulsi who earned his post-graduation at 12 years of age.

P Sanjana just 3, set a world record while shooting 1,111 arrows in 210 minutes.

Little Aelita Andre was not even two when she had a solo exhibition of her abstract paintings at an art gallery in Melbourne. She had started painting from the age of nine months.

Samaira Mehta, all of 10, is running CodersBunnyz, to teach computer coding to kids through board games.

Four-year-old Advait Kolarkar, is a talented painter, having held a solo exhibition at Saint Joan Arts Centre in Canada.

Janhavi Panwar is a language expert. She can speak English in nine different accents and is also fluent in French and Japanese, besides Hindi. At the age of 12, she became the youngest coach to train IAS officers. In addition to attending college, she is a motivational speaker also.

Alma Deutscher, a pianist, a violinist, and a songwriter was only 7 when she produced an opera called The Sweeper of Dreams. With her excellent body of work she is often compared with Mozart, but she wants to be known as Alma or Little Soul.

Tanmay Bakshi is a self-taught tech all-rounder who started coding at the age of 5 years. He started a YouTube channel, Tanmay Bakshi when he was seven. Later he got interested in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and is now partnering with IBM to better the world with AI. The range and depth of his capabilities and work at the age of 14 are truly mind-boggling even for a grown-up.

Aakrit Jaiswal has the record of being the youngest surgeon as he was only seven years old when he performed his first surgery successfully. At present, he is involved in research for cancer cure.

Nadia Comaneci is a gymnast from Romania. In the 1976 Olympics, she scored a perfect 10 and she was only 14. This had never happened before. Even the scoreboard was not equipped to display her score. In the same Olympic Games, she got the perfect 10 score six more times. She is a five-time Olympic medal winner.

Some child geniuses made a mark on humanity with their efforts to better the world.

Six-year-old Ryan Hreljac was moved by the lack of clean drinking water for the poor. So, he began supporting the digging of wells with self-earned money. He founded Ryan's Well Foundation when he was 10 to bring potable water to around 800,000 poor people in 16 countries. Further, Ryan's Well Foundation spreads awareness among school children about water shortage.

Maya Penn founded Maya’s Ideas, an eco-friendly fashion house, at the tender age of eight and later Maya's Ideas 4 The Planet, a non-profit organization. Her TED Talks have gone viral.

Marley Dias wrote the book Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You as a guide to positive change through activism. For a teenager, all I can say is, “Very powerful.”

Nicolas Lowinger, the young boy behind Gotta Have Sole, ensured that 99,000 children from homeless shelters got shoes.

Jaylen Arnold suffered from Tourette's Syndrome, Asperger's and OCD. But when he suffered the bullying by his peers he reacted constructively. His Jaylen Challenge Foundation has taught more than 100,000 kids to understand individual differences and not indulge in bullying behavior.

Samantha Smith, all of 10, became America's Youngest Ambassador when she wrote a note to CPSU General Secretary Yuri Andropov regarding the possibility of the peaceful co-existence of the US and Russia. She was a television actress and also a Disney Channel special correspondent during the 1984 presidential election. She died in a plane crash at 13.

Iqbal Masih a 10-year-old Pakistani boy who escaped child slavery ensured freedom for 3,000 children. He spoke out against slavery in many different countries. Sadly he was murdered at 12.

Nkosi Johnson, an HIV-positive child received the International Children's Peace Prize in 2005, posthumously for his efforts in creating awareness about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. He and his foster mother created a refuge, Nkosi's Haven, for HIV positive mothers and their children. He succumbed to his disease at 12.

Alex Scott a four-year cancer patient raised $2,000 from a lemonade stand to support cancer research. Before her death at 8, she had raised over $1 million. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation and has contributed more than $150 million for cancer cure.

I would like to end this mini-treatise on gifted children on a delightfully charming note. Watch this lovely video to get an out of the world feeling that these kids give us. This super-genius is after all a kid when he says, "My favorite element is Xenon because it starts with an X just like my name Xander."

Watching him express that gave me a euphoric feeling. I would really like to know how you felt about watching Xander express himself on the popular TV show.